art laboratory berlin: January 2012

Friday, January 27, 2012

Vernissage of 'Navigating the Everyday' plan b (Sophia New and Daniel Belasco Rogers)
27 January, 2012

All images Copyright Art Laboratory Berlin 2012

Navigating the Everyday presents works by plan b, the British artist duo Daniel Belasco Rogers and Sophia New, and is their first solo exhibition in Germany. Since 2003 and 2007 respectively, Daniel and Sophia have been recording every journey they make every day using GPS devices. Additionally all areas of their digital communication (e.g. mobile phone text messages) are evaluated and processed artistically. Their work represents an artistic research by means of a digital archiving of their movements.

Over the years this practice has become part of everyday life, a form of private and personal 'sousveillance', in which the artists generate their own data, thereby reflecting the approach of those private and public agencies who collect all available data.

Since January 2011, the artists have also recorded their moods in writing three times a day. This mood diary enables them to compare their emotional life with the GPS traces of their movements and collected text messages. Presentation of the act of remembrance, in human and machine form, provides material for the two-channel video installation Narrating Our Lines, shown here in full for the first time. The video installation shows the artists viewing an animation of the GPS traces of their movements from 2007. With a temporal distance of three years, they then recall past events of their lives through these traces. On one screen, the viewer can see the artists, while on the other we see what the artists see - the GPS traces of their movement. A striking tension is achieved, while they (re)construct the common narrative of their lives.

In addition to this installation, additional objects are presented, which have resulted from their practice of collecting: an archive of their mobile text messages, lists of personal vocabulary based on the frequency of use, as well as journals of their fluctuating moods arranged by season, time of day and location of each of the artists.

Curated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

cooperation partners: transmediale; Mixed Reality Lab; University of Nottingham
supported by: degewo; fotoscout; SHORTCUT
special thanks to: Michael Schröder and Peter Vasil

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Time & Technology

plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers)
Navigating the Everyday

Vernissage: 27 January 2012, 8PM
Exhibition runs from 28 January - 11 March, 2012
Opening Hours: Fri - Sun, 2-6PM
Open also on 1 and 2 February, 2012 (during transmediale)

Vernissage: 27 January 2012, 8PM
Exhibition runs from 28 January - 11 March, 2012
Opening Hours: Fr - Su, 2-6PM
Open also on 1 and 2 February, 2012 (during tranmediale)

In the first half of 2012 Art Laboratory Berlin will present the exhibition Series Time & Technology, a reflection of how the radical technological changes of the last 20 years have influenced our perception of time and how we plan and structure our lives.

Curated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

In cooperation with:

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Current Art Practices on Time and Technology

14 January, 2012
3.30PM: Tour of the exhibition Controlling_Connectivity with Gretta Louw and Regine Rapp (curator)
4PM: Artists' talk Current Artistic Practices on Time and Technology with Gretta Louw, plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers) and Igor Štromajer; moderation: Christian de Lutz (curator).

In connection with the exhibition Controlling_Connectivity by Gretta Louw and the series Time and Technology Art Laboratory Berlin is presenting an artists' talk on the theme current art practices on time and technology featuring Gretta Louw and plan b (Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers) as well as the internet artist Igor Štromajer (www.intima.org). The talk will be introduced and moderated by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz.

Controlling_ Connectivity a performance and exhibition by Gretta Louw researches the pervasiveness of internet-based social networking, as well as the obligation and opportunity for constant connection with these platforms as a paradigm for a severe and systematic disruption of normal, socially accepted patterns of life and interpersonal interaction during a self-documented performance.

In her work Louw seeks to explore to what extent an extreme use of the Internet and our belief in the online connectivity can have psychological consequences. Her inquiry questions self-censorship and socially acceptable forms of behaviour in the face of the constant pressure put in place by society's inexorable increasing need for connectivity

Her 10-day online performance (2- 12 November 2011) has laid the basis for an exhibition which includes screen capture footage, photographs and an installation.

* * *
Since 2007 the British artist duo plan b (Sophia New and Daniel Belasco Rogers) have been investigating the archiving of every journey they make using GPS. For a similar amount of time they have collected every SMS text message they have sent each other. For a year each has reported their mood three times a day. These archives are then evaluated and processed artistically, the outcomes of which are videos, objects, works on paper and performances reflecting and manifesting this intimate data.

Their first German solo exhibition Navigating the Everyday will open at Art Laboratory Berlin on 27 January, 2012 at 8PM as part of the current Time and Technology series in conjunction with the Transmediale program Vorspiel.

Controlling_Connectivity was made possible in part with a generous grant from the Abt-Straubinger Stiftung